Judges 1:1-2:5

Judges  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented
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This is the first sermon through the text of Judges. We’re covering all of chapter 1 and a little of chapter 2. This covers the first introduction of the book of Judges. It demonstrates the disobedience of the Israelites and the reason for all the suffering later on in the book.

Notes
Transcript

Introduction:

**On January 28th, 1986, a group of 7 astronauts was set to launch into outer space on the Space Shuttle known as the Challenger
-However, there was concern from some of the engineers who were involved in making the O-rings on the space ship that were supposed to keep the hot gases from escaping and causing damage during the launch
-The morning of the 28th was going to be a cold morning, and the engineers knew that the O-rings could become brittle and malfunction in cold weather
-The night before, a teleconference call was scheduled with Nasa, and the engineers expressed concern and asked for a delay in the launch until the weather became warmer
-Ultimately, however, the engineers warnings were ignored by the company that made the rings and by NASA, and the launch was approved
-That morning, at 11:38am, the Challenger launched in front of a large TV-audience
-Within 73 seconds, the flames reached a fuel tank, causing the Challenger to disintegrate in flames, ultimately crashing and killing all 7 astronauts
-You see, the seeds for this destruction were sown when in the failures of those in charge when they made poor decisions, and those decisions went on to have disastrous results**
-The book of Judges is filled with sin, destruction, and death
-But the seeds of this carnage are sown in the first chapter, where the Spirit of God pulls back the curtain and reveals to us the failures of the Israelites in chapter 1, which then affects everything that happens in the book
-The book of Judges follows on the heels of the triumphs in Israel during the time of Joshua
-The Canaanites are largely subdued, but some remain
-God has commanded the Israelites to finish the job of driving the Canaanites out
-The whole point of the book of Judges, the theme, is: God’s compassionate rescue of ruined sinners
-Our text today is chapter 1 and the first 5 verses of chapter 2
-This serves as the first of two introductions to the book of Judges, and in this text, we see the reason for the carnage that is to follow in the book
-In the text, we see three stages in the story of the beginning of the era of the Judges
The early triumphs
The eventual failures
The final verdict
**pray**

1. The Early Triumphs (1:1-26)

**how many of you have ever experienced a great start to your day, only to have it turn bad rather quickly?
-Perhaps you have a day where you wake up feeling unusually refreshed and well-rested
-Perhaps there’s some ingredients to make your favorite breakfast
-The sun is rising and the weather seems especially cheery that day
-You’re driving to work, and you’re listening to some really exciting and enjoyable music
-Optimism and energy are unusually high . . .
-And then something bad happens
-I can remember getting up on a Saturday morning during my senior year of college
-I was a few weeks away from graduating with my degree in exercise science
-And there was a really important certification that I had been studying for all semester long
-I had paid a lot of money for the materials to study and paid money to go to a testing center to try to pass this exam
-And after the long and stressful exam, I got the results . . . I had passed
-I remember driving home, being so excited!
-The sun was shining, the weather felt nice, and I the vibes were great!
. . . until I rear-ended the guy in front of me
-I was driving my brother’s car, and I did about $1400 worth of damages to his car, not to mention the anger I experienced from the driver in front of me
-On days like those, the optimism and good vibes that you began the day with quickly fade, and it’s hard to remember why you ever felt excited or optimistic to begin with
-The day certainly didn’t seem like it would go downhill and turn sour
-There was no indication that your world would go south on you**
-That’s a little how the book of Judges begins
-There’s actually a lot of encouraging and uplifting triumphs to begin the book
-It seems as if the sense of triumph that characterizes the book of Joshua has spilled over onto the first pages of Judges
-You wouldn’t get the sense that this was going to be a rather depressing and bleak picture of humanity by the way things start out
Let me point out a few of the early triumphs that begin the first chapter of Judges:

A. The Triumph of Seeking God’s Wisdom (1:1-2)

-The book begins with the death of Joshua, the great leader whom God used to captain the armies of Israel
-But when he dies, the Israelites don’t immediately disintegrate
-They don’t immediately fall into apostasy
-They don’t come apart at the seams
-No, they ask God for wisdom, humbling seeking His guidance on who should lead them, which God graciously gives by choosing Judah
-Notice next there is . . .

B. The Triumph of Clan Unity (1:3)

-Instead of giving into a rugged, maverick instinct to look out for only themselves and go into battle alone, Judah teams up with another tribe
-the tribe of Judah proposes to their neighboring tribe, Simeon, that they should come help Judah fight, and then Judah would go and help Simeon
-God blesses this kind of unity and comraderie, giving Judah the victory in verse 4
Notice also . . .

C. The Triumph of Divine Justice

-The next several verses tell of God’s justice and vengeance being enacted on a pagan king
-Adoni-Bezek is conquered by Judah and Simeon, and they cut off his thumbs and big toes and take him captive until he dies
-Now, this may seem a little cruel and barbaric to us, but the text indicates otherwise
-Look at Adoni-Bezek’s own interpretation of these events in verse 7
Judges 1:7 Adoni-bezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off used to pick up scraps under my table. God has repaid me for what I have done.” They brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.
-You see, part of the conquest of Canaan was not just for the Israelites to get this land, but for God to enact vengeance and justice on the Canaanites for their sin
-God is using Israel as his instrument to meet out His wrath on those who have sinned against him and treated others cruelly
-And because of Israel’s obedience, God’s justice is enacted and praised
Notice next . . .

D. The Triumph of Right Relationships (1:11-15)

-Notice the short story about the marriage of Othniel and Achsah
-Caleb, who is an incredibly important and godly figure in the Pentateuch and the book of Joshua, offers his daughter Achsah to the person who would attack and take the city of Kirjath Sepher
-Now, this may seem strange or offensive to our modern ears, the idea of offering your daughter’s hand in marriage as a reward, but this was a very common practice back then
-Furthermore, Caleb was ensuring that his daughter married and man of courage and commitment to the task that God had given him
-His nephew, Othniel (who we find out later is actually the first judge in of the book), takes the city and wins a wife
-We also see the humble courage and foresight of Achsah
Judges 1:14–15 When she arrived, she persuaded Othniel to ask her father for a field. As she got off her donkey, Caleb asked her, “What do you want?” She answered him, “Give me a blessing. Since you have given me land in the Negev, give me springs of water also.” So Caleb gave her both the upper and lower springs.
-Achsah, not satisfied with just a mediocre piece of land, boldly asks her father for the springs of water adjacent to the land
-Caleb responds positively to this, and gives her what she asks
-This brief story shows us that relationships within society are healthy at this point
-People are getting married and women are being treated with respect
-This is important, because as the book of Judges goes on and things unravel morally, women are treated more and more poorly
Finally, we see

E. The Triumph of God’s Blessing

-Several times in the first part of this chapter, we see God’s blessing on the Israelites as He gives them victory

4 Then Judah went up, and the LORD delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand;

19 So the LORD was with Judah.

And the house of Joseph also went up against Bethel, and the LORD was with them.

-We see early on that God is with His people, and they experience the blessings that He bestows on those who faithfully walk with Him
-Obviously as a Christian, that doesn’t mean that just because you obey God, things are going to go great in your life
-There’s no guarantees that just because you are obeying God by walking in the Spirit, being faithful in church, and trying to witness that you’ll get a raise at work or that your neighbors will stop bothering you with their late-night parties
-But there is a certain amount of blessing that we experience as we live in obedience to God’s commands, no matter the cost
James 1:25 But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but one who does good works—this person will be blessed in what he does.
Unfortunately though, the Israelites would not continue on the path of faithfulness and obedience . . .

2. The Eventual Failures (1:16-36)

Now, I want you to note the progression in this section
-Things don’t turn on a dime from really good to really bad
-The Israelites don’t go from complete obedience to complete disobedience overnight
-From verse 16, all the way to verse 26, there are triumphs mixed with failures
-Verse 16 is the first sign of failure among the Israelites
Judges 1:16 The descendants of the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, had gone up with the men of Judah from the City of Palms to the Wilderness of Judah, which was in the Negev of Arad. They went to live among the people.
-This group of Kenites that were with Judah go and settle in a region
-But they don’t drive out the Canaanites
-instead, they simply dwell with them
The next few verses, 17 through the beginning of 19 are positive
-Judah and Simeon are waging war against the Canaanites and winning battles
-We even see in 19 that God is with Judah!
-However, verses 19 says
Judges 1:19 they [Judah] could not drive out the people who were living in the valley because those people had iron chariots.
Verse 20 is positive, recounting the triumph of Caleb in his conquest
However
Judges 1:21 At the same time the Benjaminites did not drive out the Jebusites who were living in Jerusalem.
The next several verses are mainly positive, with a short story of how the Lord helped the house of Joseph to take the city of Bethel through finding a Canaanite willing to help them into the city
But after that, the rest of the chapter is filled with the failures of the Israelites
Just glance down at the following verses and see the repitition:
1:27

Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth Shean and its villages, or Taanach and its villages, or the inhabitants of Dor and its villages, or the inhabitants of Ibleam and its villages, or the inhabitants of Megiddo and its villages; for the Canaanites were determined to dwell in that land.

1:29

Nor did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites who dwelt in Gezer;

1:30

Nor did Zebulun drive out the inhabitants of Kitron or the inhabitants of Nahalol;

1:31

Nor did Asher drive out the inhabitants of Acco or the inhabitants of Sidon,

1:33

Nor did Naphtali drive out the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh or the inhabitants of Beth Anath;

And you get to the end of the chapter, and things really bottom out
1:34

34 And the Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountains, for they would not allow them to come down to the valley;

By the end, the Israelites are not only failing to drive out the Canaanites, but the Canaanites are actually driving out the Israelites!
-Now, I want to answer 2 questions here before we move on to the last section of the text
-When we look at how Israel started so well, and how they finished so poorly, two questions come to mind
How did Israel end up at this place of being driven out?
Why didn’t Israel just do what God said?
First, how did they end up here, with one of their tribes being driven back by the Canaanites?
-It happened gradually
-Rarely do we as the people of God wake up and decide we want to make a wreck of our lives and live in the consequences and ruin of sin
-We make seemingly small choices that end up taking us down a dangerous path
-We live MOSTLY in obedience
-We’re not out there doing crazy things like trying illegal drugs or cheating on our spouse or embezzling funds at work
-We still go to church some, try to be nice to people, and make a lot of choices that are good
-But we become more and more comfortable with disobedience
-We make small compromises that we know violate God’s Word
-We’re mostly honest, but we occasionally bend the truth when it’s convenient
-We’re mostly pure, but we allow some sexually immoral thoughts and actions to exist
-We’re mostly kind, especially to strangers and people at church, but we allow bitterness and harshness towards family members to creep into our thoughts and words and actions
Which leads us to the next question:
2. Why didn’t Israel just do what God said?
-Why didn’t they just keep on driving out the Canaanites?
-Why did they choose to let some stay?
-We’re not explicitly told in the text, but I think one motive to consider would be this:
-obedience is often hard
-I mean, driving out the Canaanites is dangerous
-You have to go to battle
-People can get hurt or killed
-Plus, we know from several verses in 27-36 that the Israelites put the Canaanites under subjection to them
-Perhaps they had the Canaanites as their servants, using them to perform menial tasks such as building walls or houses
-Perhaps they extracted tribute from the Canaanites, getting money from them year after year
-And you can imagine perhaps the line of thinking the Israelites had:
“I mean, we don’t need to kill or drive out all of them right?
“I mean, some of us could get hurt or killed in a long drawn-out battle
“Plus, look how useful these Canaanites can be! They can build really good houses for half the cost
“We can tax them and bring in income
“I know God warned us about the dangers of keeping them around and how we might end up worshipping their gods, but that’s not gonna happen to us!
“We’re not gonna go worship those dumb idols
“I know God said, but surely He wants us to be safe and happy!
“I think He’ll understand if we just leave a few of them around”
I don’t know specifically if that was specifically the motives or way of thinking the Israelites were in, but isn’t that sometimes how we think?
-We view God’s commands as if they were more like guidelines
**Almost a little like we treat the speed limit
-In America, we kind of view the speed limit as a nice suggestion
-It’s there to warn you about the dangers of going fast
-But as long as you’re a careful driver (unlike a lot of those nut jobs you share the road with), and as long as you understand the risks, it’s ok to go over the speed limit if you’re careful**
-Brothers sisters, we’re susceptible to that kind of thinking, aren’t we?
-We can view small acts of disobedience as no big deal
-We can talk ourselves into thinking that God would certainly understand why my situation is an exception
“it’s ok to be abrupt and annoyed and short with my family members, and if you knew how annoying my family members are, you’d understand why I’m an exception to what God commands in this area”
“I know it’s a sin to be anxious and worried about the cares of this life, but if you understood my situation, you’d see why I’m an exception to what God commands”
Brothers and sisters, we must be on guard against gradual drift into unfaithfulness to God, and the kind of thinking that says that my ways are better than God’s ways
That leads us ultimately to . . .

3. The Final Verdict (2:1-5)

In this book about judges, God is the first and ultimate Judge, and comes to give His verdict to the people of Israel
The Angel of the Lord, who I believe to be Jesus Christ Himself, says,

I led you up from Egypt and brought you to the land of which I swore to your fathers; and I said, ‘I will never break My covenant with you.

You see, before He ever gets to condemning the actions of the Israelites, He first reminds them of His faithfulness
-He had been the One to lead them up out of the slavery of Egypt
-He was the One who gave them this land which He had promised to the Patriarchs
-He was the One who made a covenant with them that He promised never to break
-Brothers and sisters, when it comes to our disobedience, the first thing we need to remember is the faithfulness of God
-Any relational failure going on between us and God is not His fault
-God is not capable of any wrong-doing
-He always fulfills His Word
-He always keeps His promises
-He always does for us exactly what He says He will do
-And until we understand that when we sin in unfaithfulness, it is an affront, an attack on a God who is ALWAYS faithful to us, we’ll never understand how serious our sin is
Then, He addresses their failures:

And you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall tear down their altars.

God reminds them of what their responsibility was in the covenant
-They were not to form relational covenants with these people
-Rather, they were to come in and tear down their altars and uproot the paganism that had plagued this land for so long
And then, He gives the verdict:

But you have not obeyed My voice. Why have you done this?

-Brothers and sisters, the actions of the Israelites were not merely unfortunate oversights
-Their actions were not merely understandable and necessary adjustments to the plan
-Their actions are called disobedience
-God says, “you have not obeyed my voice.”
-Brothers and sisters, we have to recognize our sin for what it is: it’s disobedience
-It’s not heeding the commands of the Lord
-Others in your life may look at your actions and not know anything is wrong
-Others may look on what you’re doing and think it’s a perfectly rational and understandable response to your circumstances
-There may not be one other person who would speak into that area of your life,
-but God can see
-And God knows
-And when He calls something disobedience, that’s what it is despite what anyone else knows or thinks!
And so He gives the consequences:

Therefore I also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you; but they shall be thorns in your side, and their gods shall be a snare to you.

-Brothers and sisters, our disobedience will always have consequences
-These acts of disobedience, these seemingly small compromises of chapter 1, these are the reason for all the harm and destruction that follows in the next 20 chapters
-If only these people could see the false worship that would come
-If only they could see the Canaanization and worldliness that would follow
-If only they could see the enslavement and oppression that would happen
-If only they could see the child sacrifice that would be enacted
-If only they could see the rape of the concubine and the civil war of chapters 19-21 that would leave thousands of Israelites dead
-If only they could see these things, perhaps they would not have thought so lightly of their disobedience!
And yes, in 4-5 they weep and offer sacrifices
-But it’s too late
-The course has been set and the consequences are coming
-Brothers and sisters, we need to heed this warning
-There are real consequences to our acts of disobedience
-Acts of disobedience that may seem small and insignificant now
-Things that we get away with and there seems to be no consequences now
-These kinds of actions could have huge effects on our children, or grandchildren, or on others around us
-We need to understand that when we choose to disregard God, we sow the seeds that lead to destruction later
**I recently had a rather bizarre encounter on the prayer line within the past few weeks
-A man called in, I think he was in his 40’s or 50’s, and he began to tell me how his wife in the past few weeks had left him and was cheating on him with another man whom she was now living with
-He was under incredible duress; he was super tore up about his wife’s unfaithfulness and rejection
-He told me that she was unsaved, even though he had tried desperately in years past to see her come to Christ
-So, being curious about his situation, I asked him when he came to know the Lord
-He claimed to have been saved decades ago, long before he knew his wife
-wanting to know more, I asked him if he had any kids with her
-He said no, but she had kids from previous marriages she had been in
-So I finally asked him, “Did you have any hesitations about marrying this woman since you were a Christian and she wasn’t?”
-He said, “not at all! I actually met her through her ex-husband. You see, she was married to my cousin when I first met her. And then their relationship soured, I was there to help her through the divorce and we fell in love and got married.”
-And at that point, all the you’re certainly sad to hear about his wife cheating on him, you realize that the seeds for this kind of sorrow and heartache were sown long ago when this man made poor, unbiblical choices about who he would marry**
-Now, that’s a pretty crazy example, but brothers and sisters, we have to understand that when we’re choosing to compromise and live in disobedience, we sow the seeds for our own sorrow and regret and pain for later on
So is there hope? I’m a pretty sinful person, and mess up constantly. Is there any hope for me?
-The answer is yes
-You see, right here, even in our bleak text that serves as a harsh warning, there’s hope
-Because according to 2:1, God is a God who never breaks His covenant with His people
-And even though He will no longer drive out the Canaanites, He does not leave or abandon His people
-Instead, He patiently bears with them, even though they cheat on Him over and over again
-He remains faithful, and time and time again, he raises up a rescuer, a savior, who delivers them from their sin and sorry
-And even at the end of the book of Judges, even at the end of all the sin and sorrow, God is still there
-And He is the One who eventually sends the Ultimate Rescuer, the Ultimate Savior, Jesus Christ
-And one day, Christ will rescue us permanently and completely from all our sin and all the sorrow and hurt caused by sin
-So we have reason to hope and rejoice
-But brothers and sisters, if there are areas in which you are living in disobedience, please repent
-Please turn from it
-Do not presume on the grace and patience of our God
-Turn from your sin and by Christ’s grace and His Spirit, seek to live in obedience to our faithful, steadfast God
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